AI exposure: Tire Repairers and Changers
Repair and replace tires.
Reading this score
computedTire Repairers and Changers is among the least exposed occupations measured, at 4.4% of weighted task load, rank 884 of 923. 92.5% of this job is work current AI systems cannot produce at all. That is not a statement about skill or value. It is a statement about what these systems can and cannot do.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 25 tasks it averages 2.88 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Order replacements for tires or tubes, at 80.0%. The least is Place tire casings and tread rubber assemblies in tire molds for the vulcanization process and..., at 0.0%. A gap of 80.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within installation, maintenance and repair occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 13.8% across the group's 50 roles, with 47 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 25 tasks, 1 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 24 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 0.36 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.88 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.20 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.77 | 0-3 |
| Context | 0.89 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.28 | 0-3 |
Task by task
25 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Order replacements for tires or tubes. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.56 | exposed |
| Place wheels on balancing machines to determine counterweights required to balance wheels. | 15.0% | 10.0% | 75.0% | 4.70 | untouched |
| Locate punctures in tubeless tires by visual inspection or by immersing inflated tires in water baths and observing air bubbles. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.17 | untouched |
| Inspect tire casings for defects, such as holes or tears. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.16 | untouched |
| Inflate inner tubes and immerse them in water to locate leaks. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 3.94 | untouched |
| Drive automobile or service trucks to industrial sites to provide services or respond to emergency calls. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.35 | untouched |
| Unbolt and remove wheels from vehicles, using lug wrenches or other hand or power tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.74 | untouched |
| Identify tire size and ply and inflate tires accordingly. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.68 | untouched |
| Raise vehicles, using hydraulic jacks. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.68 | untouched |
| Reassemble tires onto wheels. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.62 | untouched |
| Glue tire patches over ruptures in tire casings, using rubber cement. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.61 | untouched |
| Remount wheels onto vehicles. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.55 | untouched |
| Seal punctures in tubeless tires by inserting adhesive material and expanding rubber plugs into punctures, using hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.39 | untouched |
| Replace valve stems and remove puncturing objects. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.39 | untouched |
| Apply rubber cement to buffed tire casings prior to vulcanization process. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.37 | untouched |
| Hammer required counterweights onto rims of wheels. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.32 | untouched |
| Buff defective areas of inner tubes, using scrapers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.30 | untouched |
| Rotate tires to different positions on vehicles, using hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.22 | untouched |
| Prepare rims and wheel drums for reassembly by scraping, grinding, or sandblasting. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.11 | untouched |
| Separate tubed tires from wheels, using rubber mallets and metal bars or mechanical tire changers. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.08 | untouched |
| Patch tubes with adhesive rubber patches or seal rubber patches to tubes, using hot vulcanizing plates. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.98 | untouched |
| Assist mechanics and perform various mechanical duties, such as changing oil or checking and replacing batteries. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.72 | untouched |
| Clean and tidy up the shop. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.51 | untouched |
| Clean sides of whitewall tires. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.43 | untouched |
| Place tire casings and tread rubber assemblies in tire molds for the vulcanization process and exert pressure to ensure good adhesion. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | – | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean. 1 task(s) lacked a usable O*NET weight and are shown but excluded from the weighting.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.